Attn: Construction Pros

“Is Estimating the Most Important Thing You do as a Contractor?”

From the desk of Nicholas Hurd, President Litening Software, Inc.
Tuesday, 9:32A.M.

Dear Contractor:

Besides doing a great job, do you think estimating is the most important job a contractor can do?

Successful contractors, who make money reliably, job after job, consider estimating to be only one part of the equation. They believe if you don’t have the other elements of the puzzle, you’ll never achieve consistent profits.

If you are not making money reliably…

Maybe you’ve never heard of the secrets that successful contractors use to make money job after job.

We’ll discuss those in a minute…

But First…

Let me tell you why you should listen to me. My name is Nicholas Hurd and I’ve been working with building contractors since 1977. I’ve talked with thousands, maybe 10s of thousands of contractors over the years. Some very successful and some, not so much. I’ve taken what I’ve learned from both those groups.

I heard so many stories from the not so successful contractors that I was appalled. Stories of running up credit card debt and taking out second mortgages, just to survive. I felt I had to come up with a way to help them. They are hardworking people that that need a hand up.

I had to create an easy to learn and use system for them. A system that was based on the lessons learned from the very successful contractor. That’s why I created[…]

“The Contractor’s Profit System™ with LiteningFast™ Estimating”

I’ll tell you more about the system in a moment…

First

Have you felt like you’re on a tread mill of working your butt off and not getting anywhere?

Is your family not able to do what they want to do because money is tight?

Do you feel like you’re running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off and you just never have the time to do the things you really want to do?

If so, you’re going to discover the secrets to making the money you really deserve on each and every job you do from today forward.

So, you’ll never have to worry about getting left out of the profits you deserve ever again. You’re going to find a system the will keep you on the track to profitability. You will make more money so you and your family can enjoy the benefits of your hard work.

7 Secrets to the Reliable Profit You Want

These secrets are based on talking with successful contractors that make money reliably job after job.

You already know some of these secrets. I’d be amazed if you’re not already using some of them!

That said, using 2 or 3… or even 4 of these secrets is not enough to make sure you make money reliably, job after job.

Secret 1 is something you, hopefully, do already

That is, accurate measurements of the project. If you don’t have accurate measurements, you can never make money reliably. How can your estimates ever be accurate if you don’t have accurate measurements to begin with?

Secret 2 – Organizing Your Estimates

What do I mean by “organizing your estimates?”

It means breaking your estimating into what I call “sections”. There are other name people use for this including; tasks; classes; categories and others.

Your estimates should be broken down into sections, like: Site Work; Foundations; Framing; Roofing; Finishes and so on.

You benefit it three ways when you organize your estimates.

Takeoff is Easier and Faster

When all the items you are going to use for, let’s say, Interior Wall Framing are all together so you can easily pick the one(s) you need. It’s faster than if you have a huge random list of items you use in your estimating

Mistakes are Eliminated

Missing or duplicate items are hard to find when your estimate is a big random list.

You Look More Professional

When you present your estimate to a prospect, you look much more professional. And, that’s what you want, isn’t it?

Secret 3 – Measurable Items

You will find that this really important. That’s because if you are estimating something like: “That will take about 3 hours and cost about $200 in materials.”

I hate to tell you this. That’s Not Estimating, That’s Guesstimating! There is no way on this earth that you will consistently, and reliably, make money if that’s the way you estimate.

Let me explain. That method of estimating is too variable. On different days you will probably have different answers for hours and cost. That’s because your estimating is affected by your mood on the day you are estimating.

When you are using “Measurable Items” you will the same result a year from now that you got today. If you are estimating a wall, for example, you know it’s going to take 1 hour per linear foot of 8’ wall and $25 per linear foot for materials (these are totally made up numbers). So if you are estimating a 10 foot wall or a 30 foot wall you will get exactly the correct result for each one.

And, if you can measure them, you can look at your results to see if your numbers are correct. If they are not, correct them for the next job.

Secret 4 – Tracking Your Costs

This is “Yuuuge”, as President Trump would say.

If you are not tracking your costs you can never estimate accurately.

Let me say that again…

If you are not tracking your costs, you can never estimate accurately 🙁

Let’s say for example, you think it takes 1 hour per linear foot of interior 2×4 wall with drywall on both sides, taped and textured. And, that’s how you bid your jobs.

Well, if it takes 1 1/4 hours you’re are losing money on ever foot of wall you are doing.

On the other hand, if it takes 3/4 of an hour you are over estimating and losing jobs.

You want to get jobs and make a reasonable profit, right? Without measurable items and job cost you can’t do it. Making money is luck, like playing the lottery, not skill.

Would you rather make money based on your skill rather than luck?

Secret 5 – Simplified Budgets

Tracking costs is important.

Unfortunately, the way some contractors do it is painful and time consuming. This is why so many contractors don’t track costs. You don’t want that!

Simplified budgets make job cost easy.

They allow you to track your costs at the section level. That means there is less detail to consider when you are capturing your costs. It also means it’s easier for you to compare estimate to actual.

You want it to be easy, right?

Secret 6 – Use an Accounting System to Track Your Costs

You pay your bills, don’t you?

If you have people on your crew(s) you pay them as well, I assume. IUsing an accounting system, like QuickBooks® makes it easy to track your costs as you are paying you bills and your people. There are other accounting systems out there that are excellent as well.

An accounting system will allow you to track your costs while you are paying your bills. That means that you save time, effort and accuracy over doing job cost separately in a spreadsheet or on paper.

It’s so easy, a couple extra key strokes or mouse clicks and your costs are captured. And your bills and employees are paid!

Secret 7 – Integrating Estimating with Paying Your Bills

This is a no brainer!

Make it easy! Your budgets should be automatically updated to your accounting system. It saves you time and creates accurate budgets to track your costs. You track your costs as you pay your bills and your employees.

That brings us back to…

The Contractor’s Profit System with LiteningFast Estimating

You will find that the system was designed, from the ground up, with the “7 Estimating Secrets” in mind. It’s beautiful.

You’ll get accurate, bid winning,trackable, estimates that make money reliably, job after job.

You want that, don’t you?

Easy to Learn and Use

You’ll also discover that it’s easy to learn. It’s not like the expensive estimating systems. Systems that demand a week in a classroom to learn. Systems that if you don’t use them every day you forget more than you ever knew about them. They’re so hard.

You can easily get started in a weekend. A few hours watching the video tutorials and starting your first estimate. It’s so simple.

It’s so simple to use…

It has power tools you can use to create job getting, money making, estimates in minutes. It’s very fast.

Here’s what you need to know about The Contractor’s Profit system:

You get Organized Estimates

You also get Measurable Items

There are simplified budgets transferred automatically to QuickBooks

Tutorials on how to review job cost so you find problems before they become big profit eating glitches. And how to update your estimating to eliminate the issue the next time you estimate.

You’ll also find that the system works for you:

You can modify the system to fit your way of doing business, not my way.

Add notes to your estimates so you customers know exactly what they are getting

You can print detailed estimates that will always win out over “back of the envelope” estimates.
And detail estimates mean that there are no disputes over what is included in the estimate.
That means more change orders instead of disputes!

Turn out estimates even faster and more accurate:

Assemblies make it easy for you to create estimates quickly and without errors.

The Copy Estimates function makes it easy for you to create estimates with different options for your customer to choose from.

Output your estimates to MS Word so you can add your boilerplate contract terms. You can also add formatting to fit your company’s image.

Use simple assemblies to make the estimating process faster and easier.

Get Started FAST and more:

Video tutorials will get you up and estimating fast.

The “Get Started” written tutorial will also get you started if you prefer reading to video.

Easily get exact material quotes from your suppliers so your estimate is accurate.

Your Future is in Your Hands

At this point you can continue doing what you’ve been doing and getting the same results you been getting. That’s the easy path, and probably the most painful.

OR

You can click the link just below here and listen to, and read, a few of the many testimonials for The Contractor’s Profit System with LiteningFast Estimating. You’ll also discover all you get with the system.

Imagine what it will be like a year from now as you are making money reliably, job after job.

P.S. You are just 1 click… and a few minutes… away from knowing how to take control of your business and start on the path to profitability. Click Here IMMEDIATELY and you will see and hear how the system has worked for 1,000s of other contractors and will work for you.

P.P.S. You may be skeptical of all you’ve read, and that’s totally understandable. That’s why you need to see and hear from a few of the many testimonials we have that will prove to you that the system will work for you. Click Here Now!